... A new bright LBV (Luminous Blue Variable) star was detected in M33 galaxy. LBV stars are the most massive stars in the final stages of evolution before exploding in of supernovae. ... The new LBV star (Fig.1) is the seventh in M33. ... It is one of the brightest LBV stars of the M33 galaxy. ... The brightest object is the core of the galaxy, - a compact star cluster comprising a supermassive black hole. The new LBV star N93351 is located down and to the left from the core. ...

... Bad Astronomy . ... Bitesize Astronomy . ... Last week's Snack talked about how black holes can affect the environment around them in such a way as to be very bright . ... It's a common misconception that black holes always have matter swirling into them. ... As this matter gets closer and closer to the black hole it piles up and a large, fairly flat disk forms. This is called the accretion disk , because matter from this disk accretes (that is, falls in) on the black hole. ... 2008 Phil Plait. ...

... V838 Mon is a member of a new class of eruptive variables which appear as a peculiar novae having late K-M type spectra in their outburst. Before its outburst, it was a wide binary system of B3V type stars. ... The B3V companion was seen in the outburst in the UV spectrum taken with HST (Rauch et al., ... In the latest spectra, the light of B3V companion was predominating in the short-wave photometric bands. ... CCD blue frames of V838 Mon before the eclipse (left) and in the eclipse (right). ...

... Bright spot spectra have been constructed by differencing the mean spectra observed at pre- and post-eclipse orbital phases. These difference spectra contain ultraviolet absorption lines and show the Balmer jump in emission. ... Model disk spectra constructed as ensembles of stellar atmospheres provide poor descriptions of the observed post-eclipse spectra, despite the fact that UX UMa's light should be dominated by the disk at this time. ... huizinga@stsci.edu . ...

A bright supernova, 1998S, has been found on March 3 by Chinese astronomers at Beijing Observatory. 1998S is located in NGC 3877 an UMa galaxy at R.A. = 11h46m06s, Decl. = +47o29'.0. ... Recent magnitude estimates show the star at around magn 12. ... It covers a field of 35'x35' and shows stars down to magnitude 15 and is mainly based on the GSC and USNO catalogues. ... Below follows a list of field and sequence stars located within ~20' from SN 1998S in NGC 3877: . ... TI (b-r)=+0.5 . ...

... Fractional flux density variations of between 5 and 100 per cent (typically 15-25 per cent) have been detected on a range of time-scales from 1 to 12 years. ... The 151-MHz flux densities have been indirectly scaled to the 6C flux scale. ... Amongst the 72 sources for which the chance of being a true variable is greater than 0.8, typical maximum flux density variations of 15-25 per cent are seen; eight objects show variations greater than 50 per cent, with one source varying by more than 100 per...

An image of the grand design of spiral galaxy M100 obtained with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope resolves individual stars within the majestic spiral arms. ... Hubble has the ability to resolve individual stars in other galaxies and measure accurately the light from very faint stars. This makes space telescope invaluable for identifying a rare class of pulsating stars, called Cepheid Variable stars embedded within M100's spiral arms. ... 617) 495-7062 . Fax: (617) 495-7356 . ...

... 26.02.2007 . ... In an attempt to find out, the orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope made detailed observations of the atmospheres of two planets that orbit stars other than our Sun. ... It's not an astronomical nebula -- those appear to stay put. ... APOD: 2007 February 24- X rays and the Eagle Nebula . ... The premier Chandra X-ray Observatory images of M16, the Eagle Nebula, show many bright x-ray sources in the region. ... APOD: 2007 February 23- Dust and the Helix Nebula . ... February . ...

... Cataclysmic Variables . ... The main aim of this survey is to discover new stellar binary systems with orbital periods less than ~80 min. ... The intensity of stellar objects can vary on a wide range of time-scales, ranging from seconds to months to years. ... Most of these surveys are sensitive to timescales longer than a day. ... For instance, the 0.3 deg x 0.3 deg survey using the Canada France Hawaii Telescope was sensitive to variations on timescales as short as ~8 min (Lott et al 2002) . ...

The ESA/ESO Astronomy Exercise Series 2 . The Distance to Messier 100 as Determined by Cepheid Variable Stars . ... The small variations in distance to the individual Cepheid variable stars in the Cloud are negligible compared with the much larger distance to the SMC. ... In this way Cepheid variable stars can be used as one of the 'standard candles' in the Universe that act either as distance indicators themselves or can be used to calibrate (or set the zero point for) other distance indicators. ...

... BLUE STRAGGLER STARS are unusually hot and bright stars found in the cores of ancient star clusters known as globulars. ... BACKGROUND (from wikipedia): Blue straggler stars are stars in open or globular clusters that are hotter and bluer than other cluster stars having the same luminosity. ... There is evidence in favor of this view, notably that blue straggler stars appear to be much more common in dense regions of clusters, especially in the cores of globular clusters. ...

Supernova 2000ch in NGC 3432 This page is devoted to information on Supernova 2000ch in NGC 3432 Basic information on this SN, including the last reported brightness, on this Supernova can be found on the main page . Information on the original web pages for many of these images can be found on the Supernova links web page. ... Y. Sano image . 2000/04/26.5 . ... LOSS image . ... vsnet-chat 2901 ] NGC 3432 galaxy information . vsnet-chat 2908 ] about variable star in field of NGC 3432 . ...